In memory...
Today I'm remembering Dan Vize. I can't be up there for the memorial services, but I wish I was. It's a shock- one that I didn't know would affect me this much. But it's a loss- a loss of a human life. A loss of someone I remember as being a really great guy.
It's sad that it's taken Dan's passing to jolt me into remembering just how good it was to be around everyone in high school- to have that kind of community. No matter how hard it always feels to go home, to be back in the place where I grew up with the thousands of bad memories- it's taken Dan's death to remember everything good.
And despite how sad I feel that Dan is gone, I find myself smiling at odd moments when I remember something funny or silly or uplifting from back then. We were great- all of us- all together. For whatever reason, God put us all in that place at the same time.
And now the family is just that much smaller.
My neighbor, Kerry, passed couple of years back. As far as I know, she was the first of our class to go. It's weird that someone whom I lived next to- walked through her yard everyday to get to my house- her passing has not affected me as much as Dan's. Maybe it's because I heard it from my dad, who does an excellent job at softening the blow. Maybe it's because it was reported that she died of an unknown heart condition. Well, the drugs couldn't have helped much with that, but...you know, it's still pretty much natural causes. God called her home.
I can only pray, continually, that God will have mercy on Dan's soul and that he really will rest in peace. I hope he's there partying when, God willing, I get there myself.
It's sad that it's taken Dan's passing to jolt me into remembering just how good it was to be around everyone in high school- to have that kind of community. No matter how hard it always feels to go home, to be back in the place where I grew up with the thousands of bad memories- it's taken Dan's death to remember everything good.
And despite how sad I feel that Dan is gone, I find myself smiling at odd moments when I remember something funny or silly or uplifting from back then. We were great- all of us- all together. For whatever reason, God put us all in that place at the same time.
And now the family is just that much smaller.
My neighbor, Kerry, passed couple of years back. As far as I know, she was the first of our class to go. It's weird that someone whom I lived next to- walked through her yard everyday to get to my house- her passing has not affected me as much as Dan's. Maybe it's because I heard it from my dad, who does an excellent job at softening the blow. Maybe it's because it was reported that she died of an unknown heart condition. Well, the drugs couldn't have helped much with that, but...you know, it's still pretty much natural causes. God called her home.
I can only pray, continually, that God will have mercy on Dan's soul and that he really will rest in peace. I hope he's there partying when, God willing, I get there myself.